Ononis rotundifolia (round-leaved restharrow)

Native to the western Mediterranean, from eastern Spain and France to eastern Austria and central Italy, where it is found at 700–1,800 m above sea level.

A perennial shrub up to 50 cm tall. The leaves are divided into three leaflets, each of which is around 25 mm across, rounded, toothed and glandular. The terminal leaflet is borne on a 5 mm long stalk. The flowering branches are around 3 cm long. The flowers are 16–20 mm long. The standard petal is pink, with darker veins. The keel petals are usually white. The fruit is a dark reddish, elongated, pod with silvery hairs.

An unsigned hand-coloured engraving of Ononis rotundifolia in Curtis’s Botanical Magazine (1796).

Curtis’s Botanical Magazine (Editor: Martyn Rix) provides an international forum of particular interest to botanists and horticulturists, plant ecologists and those with a special interest in botanical illustration.

Now well over two hundred years old, the Magazine is the longest running botanical periodical featuring colour illustrations of plants. Each four-part volume contains 24 plant portraits reproduced from watercolour originals by leading international botanical artists. Detailed but accessible articles combine horticultural and botanical information, history, conservation and economic uses of the plants described.

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Round-leaved restharrow is cultivated as an ornamental.

Ononis rotundifolia is grown in the Order Beds (bed number 38, Leguminosae) at Kew.

Pressed and dried specimens of Ononis rotundifolia are held in Kew’s Herbarium, where they are available to researchers by appointment. The details of specimens of some other Ononis species can be seen on-line in the Herbarium Catalogue.

Search Kew’s science databases for more information on this species

More about Kew’s Leguminosae science team

Buy Legumes of the World G. Lewis, B. Schrire, B. Mackinder & M. Lock (eds) from www.kewbooks.com

International Legume Database & Information Service (ILDIS)

Curtis’s Botanical Magazine (Wiley-Blackwell)